Registering minority-held land in Colombia

91735 Registering Minority-held Land in Colombia July 1, 2002 Afro-Colombians make up 90 percent of the population in the rainforest-covered Chocó region along Colombia's Pacific coast.  Largely dependent on fishing, hunting, and traditional farming, these groups are among the country's poorest. In 1994, the World Bank approved a Natural Resources Management Program to help the Chocó region's Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups obtain titles of land ownership while preserving their cultural and ethnic identities.  The $65.3 million project funded the implementation of a law recognizing Afro-Colombian communities as ethnic groups with collective territorial rights. Workshops, training courses and village councils raised awareness in the community about land ownership, and with the active participation of regional Afro-Colombian and indigenous organizations, the project set up regional committees between the government and the communities to ease ethnic conflicts and develop titling standards. By 2001, the program had helped 58 community councils gain titles to 2.4 million hectares of land for households together comprising more than 100,000 people.   Related Links:  Colombia  Natural Resources Management Program Updated: July 2002